-GABRIEL'S POV-
Every time he watched a fist connect with Riley, he felt her pain. He winced when she screamed, and with every comment about her past he grew angrier. He wanted it to stop, so he told them all he could.
By the time they were finished, he silently vowed to kill Mr. Smith and Riley's torturer at the least. First he had to escape. The chip was useless, most rooms had zero signal like the room he was held in. The other rooms were bolted shut with guards in front of them.
Gabriel knew he would have to be very quick in his escape. If they knew what he was doing and got to her first, they would kill her. He would also have to locate her.
Once he knew her location, which he would undoubtedly have to find without the chip, he would start by getting rid of all the systems in the room where he was forced to watch Riley being tortured. There were only a polygraph and some highly advanced computers, but those computers had tons of top secret information. There were two guards in the room, both armed with automatic rifles. Mr. Smith would do nicely as a shield.
Gabriel planned for several days, all the while he watched Riley being punished over and over. He listened carefully for any mention of where prisoners were being held. He finally caught a break when a bruised and bleeding man found his room one night. Gabriel was aloud to wander the floor, but no farther. He opened the door to frantic knocking, very cautious because Mr. Smith and his guards didn't knock. The man had a black eye and bloody nose at the least.
"Help me, please." He begged. Gabriel immediately let the man in.
"Who are you?"
"We don't have much time." The man said quickly.
"If they find me here, they'll kill your partner."
That got Gabriel's attention. "You know Riley?"
"Every night, when they're done with us, they move us all into a long hallway. Everyone is thrown into rooms, but they have bars we can talk through, but they're too high up to see."
"Where are you being held? How did you get out?"
"How? I fought. As far as I can tell, we're being held on the basement level." Gabriel thought for a moment.
The room was silent, and the man spoke. "She talks about you a lot." He said softly.
Gabriel's heart fell to the floor. His Riley was being held and tortured, yet she still believed he would come for her.
"She always said you'd come for us. Come for her. It gave a lot of us hope."
"How many of you are there?" Gabriel struggled to speak over the lump in his throat.
"A hallway full, like I said. No one knows why they're torturing us."
"To get information from someone you love." Gabriel said gravely.
The man paused, his face filled with worry. "I need to get out of here."
"Be careful. And thank you." Gabriel said sincerely.
The man nodded, looking grim. He turned and walked into the hallway. Now Gabriel knew where Riley was, and soon she would be back where she belonged: next to him.
-RILEY'S POV-
"Is anyone there?" A man's voice rang through the hallway.
Riley could barely manage to breathe, but she managed a weak "yes."
"My name is Michael Bender. Please, what's going on?" He sounded terrified.
Riley's face was badly cut, and she was running out of shirt to tie off various wounds and keep the blood out her eyes. She wished she could tell Michael better news than she had.
"Soon," she swallowed hard and fought to keep her voice loud enough to be heard. "They will drag you to a metal room and set up a camera." Riley's voice was ragged, and her throat felt like Hell.
"A camera? Why? Are you okay?" Michael's voice was jumping octaves.
Riley closed her eyes for a moment. She was exhausted, and this guy wouldn't shut up.
"Yeah." She huffed. "Michael, they're going to torture you."
There was a pause, and Michael began to yell and beat on the door. The others around them began to wake up. Soon the whole hall was filled with shouts and screams. Riley tried to sleep, but alarms began to scream along with the prisoners, making her head pound even more than it was. There was a pounding on the door, like someone was trying to get in. Riley curled into a ball, too weak to fight. The door broke, and the bruised and bleeding face of Gabriel Vaughn wanted to cry.
"Riley?" He ran over to her curled form.
"Gabriel." She said weakly.
She felt his arms slider under her knees and around her back, and stood up fully, and she nestled herself into his chest.
"Riley. Riley, stay awake. Riley, please." He sounded like he was begging.
"Gabriel Vaughn, are you begging?" She tried to sound strong, but her voice barely worked. She heard shouts, and Gabriel swore.
"Riley, I'm going to set you down now." He said softly.
"No." She tried to hold onto his shirt, but her grip was too weak.
She felt Gabriel smile, because he was one of those people who smile with their whole body. She imagined his dimples since one of the wounds on her head started bleeding into her eyes again.
"Riley, I'll be right back." He laid her against the wall, and he was gone.
She heard grunts and cries of pain, some that were unmistakably Gabriel's. Riley wished she could help, but she couldn't muster the strength to stand.
Riley felt Gabriel lift her again, and he was breathing heavily. She cracked open her eyes as much as possible and looked at him.
"You're bleeding." She pointed out.
Gabriel huffed out a laugh. "So're you." He paused and looked ahead, hearing more shouts. "We're almost home free."
Riley let her eyes close. Her body hurt so much, it felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to every part of it.
"Come on Riley, stay awake." He gripped her tighter.
Suddenly the atmosphere changed drastically, and she felt something warm on her face. She opened her eyes again, and she found it was the sun. She sighed, enjoying the feeling of it on her skin. She heard a door open, and felt Gabriel lower her onto a car seat, but it felt more like Heaven compared to what she had been through. She heard the door close beside her, and another open and close as Gabriel got into the driver's side. The car turned on, and they were safe.
Okay so this chapter was longer than i usually write, but I'm proud of it. Please review!